Hey guys!
I’m usually pretty good at finding market rates and pricing for projects, but I’m kinda stumped right now! I had someone approach me after seeing my graphic design portfolio asking if I could put together the branding for a Kickstarter (banner, promo images, fancy text headers, etc)
I’ve... actually never done that type of work on a freelance basis, and haven’t really heard of anyone else hiring that out (I can definitely see why someone would! My network usually does all their own design work for their kickstarters, so nobody I personally know has hired out), and most of my design work has been done for much bigger fish, who send me details and budget and then I decide based on that. I’ve done a few sets of twitch emotes/YouTube headers and that sort of thing, but those have been pretty easy to google market rates for or ask my network about.
Has anyone done anything like this and knows what ballpark numbers I can throw out? If push comes to shove I can just estimate how much time it’ll take and then charge a day-rate but I work pretty fast and my day-rate often falls under where the market is.

@xin-li they look pretty great!! My main concern on the character consistency would just be the face in the first illo, it looks a bit more round while the others square off a bit more on the sides. Also I think the eyes are bigger in protein there than in the others.
You could always try overlapping the images with one of them at 50% opacity (or more) and check details that way!
The little girl looks especially cute!

Hi Mirkah!
Okay, so I tried following Lee's process, and when I save a brush as a "new brush preset" from my brushes panel, the brush shows up right beneath the brush I was using/modifying. In this case, I modified the "Hard Round" to "Pascal Campion" (inspired by this week's Jump into the Studio Session).
When I go to Edit>Define Brush Preset, however, my brush ends up at the very bottom of my "Brushes" list, which in this case is "Splatter".
Now, when I go back to my Pascal Campion brush and click "dual brush" so I can combine it with my "splatter" brush, it's really like finding a needle in a haystack. I noted my "splatter" brush size, like Lee suggested, which is 493, and it was in the middle of I don't even know how many brushes I have (way too many). If you double click on the icon, it'll show you the name of that brush (in my case, "splatter") and you can change the name from there too if you want. But that's a way you can double-check to make sure you have the right brush.
I'm not sure if this was even helpful, hahaha. But let me know if you're still having trouble and I'll see if I can help! By the way, if you loved this class, Lee also has a great YT video on textures! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N7DedDc7aU0

@JudeKillory Thanks for the new feedback Jude! I agree about Bongo - he is too flat for sure - he is mostly a place holder at the moment but possibly close to the final silhouette - i will keep your feedback in mind!

Thank you guys so much for your input! Here's a WIP of what I have so far. Is the setting clear? Does the height look appropriate? Do the figures look like they are relating to the perspective appropriately?

I am reading a biography of Louisa May Alcott which said that when she was writing "Little Women," Alcott felt quite uninspired and thought it was not her best work. In previous work she had depended on being seized by inspiration but for "Little Women", she just had to slog through because she needed the money. The biographer commented that after the success of "Little Women," Alcott came to understand that an iron will is more important to the creative process than inspiration.
I personally have been feeling very empty of inspiration these days probably because there is so much going on in the US to deplete our emotional energy but as I thought about Alcott's experience, it occurred to me that maybe the loss of artistic inspiration is not as much a lack of inspiration as a weakened will. Maybe willpower can get flabby and out of shape and what I think is creative block is actually just willpower that has gone to seed for lack of working it, like every time I have excused myself for eating cookies because "why bother to resist them when there's a pandemic." I decided to test this theory by changing my goal from "working on my art" to working on "developing an iron will." Every day, I am trying to do something to develop an iron will -- whether it is going for a run when the last thing I want to do is run or drawing when the last thing I feel like doing is drawing. I am trying no longer to think about the end results of my art but rather to think about putting pencil to the paper as one more exercise in the overall goal of strengthening my iron will. I am hoping that this approach will increasingly help me to ignore my feelings of fatigue, restlessness, emptiness, and doubt whether it is in exercise or art or any aspect of my life, which in turn will increase my ability to push through creative block.
I'll let you know if it works!

@chrisaakins said in How much to charge for 1st illustration?:
@ArtofAleksey they didn’t have a set amount in mind. I looked online and 25 an hour is a good flat rate for someone just starting out.
Personally instead of $25 I'd ask for $50 and give them a cap on how much it could be. You might end up working for $25 an hour in the end because it might take you longer than a pro, but it would help set a rate you'd be happy about if they asked for more work and you don't keep asking for more money feeling like you're getting screwed and trying to be nice.
That or a nice couch

@DavidCousens How coincidental. I just happened to finish that class a couple of days ago. I did notice that drop off, and was going to make a note of that, but I don't use Clip Studio myself so I kind of forgot about it.
When it gets updated I may have to just check it out though. (It's always good to see how things are done in other software.)